LOGINSARAH'S POV"Move, move, move. Left corridor, second hatch. Go now."Viktor's voice came through the communication channel with the flat urgency of someone who had already run the numbers, did not like them, was moving anyway. I pushed the last two players through the corridor entrance ahead of me, watched them hit the hatch, watched Viktor's contact pull it open from the other side.Cold air rushed in.Real air. And I meant outside air. The kind that carried no chemical burn, no recycled concrete smell, nothing that the building had been feeding us for weeks.The players went through without stopping.I turned back."Michael." I moved toward the observation room corridor. "We need to go now."He came out of the corridor at a controlled run, Davina two steps behind him. Both of them had heard Viktor's transmission. Neither of them was running at full speed, which meant there was something still happening between them that had not finished, a conversation continuing in the silence arou
CLAUDIA'S POV"Override accepted. East service junction, clear."I said it to nobody. A habit from months of running this building, confirming aloud what the system confirmed silently. The system was not running anymore. The power to the monitoring grid had dropped ninety seconds ago, floor by floor, the building eating itself from the bottom up exactly the way Khalid had designed it to.He had always been thorough. I had admired that about him before I put a blade in him.The service tunnel ran parallel to the northeast section, low-ceilinged, concrete on all sides, the kind of space that existed in this building because Khalid had needed routes that his own cameras could not see. I had found this particular tunnel eleven days after taking the mask. Not from any schematic but from physical exploration, the same way I had found everything worth knowing in my life.Nobody had taught me anything useful. I had walked into every room I needed and taken what was there.The floor shuddered
SARAH'S POV"How many players are still in the hall?"Viktor's voice crackled through the communication channel before I cleared the observation room doorway."Thirty confirmed. Gas is coming through the north vents, which started two minutes ago."I was already running.The corridor outside the observation room was nothing like it had been twenty minutes ago. Three guards were moving away from their posts toward the stairwells, weapons holstered, making their own calculations about a sinking ship. I pressed against the wall as they passed, let them go, kept moving.Behind me I heard Michael zip-tying Claudia to the chair. I heard the plastic bite tight. I heard Claudia say nothing, which was worse than anything she could have said.The stairwell door hit the wall when I pushed through it.Two floors down. The shaking was different on the stairs, more direct, running up through the steps into my knees with every landing. Whatever Khalid had installed in the foundations was not subtle.
MICHAEL'S POV"Nobody moves."The guard's voice bounced off every wall in the observation room. His weapon was up, aimed at my centre mass. The second guard had Sarah against the east console, forearm across her throat, her feet barely touching the floor.Claudia sat in the control chair with her hands folded in her lap. She did not look alarmed. She looked like a woman watching a film she had already seen."Michael," she began, voice carrying that particular smoothness she deployed when she wanted someone to feel managed. "You built something impressive. And you did it intentionally and genuinely. Eleven days in my building, three contacts, Vera's device, the registration gap. I almost missed the crawl space." She tilted her head slightly. "Almost."I kept my eyes on the guard closest to me. Six feet…Weapon held at the elbow, not the shoulder, but sloppy. Someone trained for intimidation rather than engagement."The problem," Claudia continued, "is that you needed everything to go ri
TOM'S POV"Override sequence confirmed… Broadcast ready."I muttered to myself without particularly addressing anybody. The communication room was empty except for me, the screens, the console, alongside the weight of everything I had memorized over three months in a crawl space below this room while Khalid operated it every day without knowing I was listening. And this, of course, has become something I hoped could just stop. The screens were showing game footage, hall footage, the northeast section, and the observation room corridor. Twenty-four feeds running simultaneously, the same wall of visibility I had watched from below for months, now accessible to me from the chair.I had been sitting in this chair for four minutes.I had the override loaded. The broadcast target list built from the contact information Sarah had activated weeks ago alongside every device receiver in a ten-mile external radius. Phone networks, emergency broadcast frequencies, connected screens in every buil
SARAH'S POV"The door is open."I said before I reached it. An open door on the observation room level was either an invitation or a trap. With Claudia, the distinction was rarely meaningful. Both led to the same room.I pushed through.Michael was standing in the center of the room. Still, hands at his sides. The posture of a man who had decided that moving would cost more than it bought.Claudia was behind the desk. Weapon on the surface in front of her, one hand resting on it, not gripping, just present. The way she held everything. Lightly enough to look relaxed. Firmly enough to move fast.Davina was against the far wall, arms crossed, watching.Viktor was gone.Claudia looked at me when I came through the door. Something crossed her face I had not seen on it before. Not the satisfaction she wore when a plan was producing results. Not the calculation she wore when she was building something. Something older. More personal.Like she recognized something she had not expected to fee
FRIEDA’S POVMy head pounded as if someone were hammering nails into my skull. Everything hurt. "Where am I?" I tried to sit up, but the room spun violently. "What happened?""Oh, so now you're awake? Perfect timing!" Serena stood in the corner, arms crossed, glaring at me with pure hatred.I blink
PATRICIA MOORE’S POV"Subject shows promising response to the new dosage. Memory fragmentation increasing as predicted."I spoke into my recorder, watching Frieda's brain scan flicker across the monitor. Beautiful. The hippocampus was lighting up exactly where I needed it to. The drug was working it
MICHAEL'S POV"Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful."I leaned back in my leather chair, watching the chaos unfold across twelve different screens. Camera 7 showed the car crash in perfect high definition. Camera 9 captured Garrett's pathetic attempts to fight his brother. Camera 3 gave me a close up of
GARRETT’S POV We cried together for what felt like an eternity.I held her tight, refusing to let go for a second. It felt like if I did, the world itself would collapse on us again.I managed to calm her slightly, and we both sank onto the bed.“Garrett… I… I can’t… it’s just too…”I kissed her be







